1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of devices that measure solar radiation. More specifically, this invention relates to a device that measures the amount of accumulated sunlight that is received at a specific location over a particular period of time.
2. Description of the Prior Art
All plants require some level of sunlight in order to grow and thrive. Evolution has created differences in the cell structure of plants and, as a result, different plants require different light conditions to grow. Some plants require full sunlight conditions throughout the day while others thrive in total shade.
Gardeners and landscapers are well aware of the need to match the light requirements of a plant with the light condition of specific planting site, but often lack the necessary tools to accurately measure accumulated sunlight conditions at the site over a period of time. The information typically provided on the label of a garden plant is very general, and with regard to the light condition required for the plant to thrive, the information is usually indicated only as: full sun, partial sun, partial shade, or full shade. It would be most helpful to gardeners to have a device that provides information about light conditions in terms that correspond to the terms used on the label and used by the general gardening public.
Sunlight measuring devices are widely available for use by professional photographers and gardeners. Many of these devices make spot measurements of light intensity at an instant in time. This information is of little value to a gardener, who needs to know the accumulated light condition of a particular site throughout the day. Other devices measure accumulated sunlight over a period of time, but provide the information in a form that is difficult for gardeners to evaluate, such as in sols/h and total sols per selected period of time. This requires that the gardener know how to equate the sols/h information with the usual light conditions indicators of full sun, partial sun, etc. that are typical for the garden industry. Still other devices are complicated to use because they require some data input effort on the part of the user.
What is needed, therefore, is a device that calculates accumulated sunlight over a given period of time at a particular site and presents the sunlight information to the gardener in gardener's terms that are comparable to the information on the typical plant label.